Will Carson Palmer's comments about Ohio State come back to bite him?

Carson Palmer, quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals, is all over the news right now for some rather strong comments he made last week to a Los Angeles talk radio station about Ohio State. Palmer was quoted as saying "I cannot stand the Buckeyes." He decided to go further and say that he is sick of all the crap he hears back in Ohio about how great Ohio State is. He said he is looking forward to when his alma mater, the USC Trojans pound the Buckeyes into the ground and give them a good Pac 10 butt-whoopin.

Before I say anything else let me say that I personally am in a very tough position on this one. I am a huge Ohio State Buckeyes fan. I bleed scarlet and gray and care far more about how Ohio State's athletic teams do than I do about any of my other favorite teams. The quandary is this though, Carson Palmer is my favorite NFL player and he just happens to play on my favorite team in the NFL, the always sad Cincinnati Bengals.

Why are these comments such a big deal? Quite frankly, Ohio State Buckeyes fans are one of a kind, and Carson Palmer is likely going to find that out the hard way. Ohio State fans are arguably the most loyal football fans in the country, but there are also arguably the toughest fans in the country. Any opposing team who has come into Ohio Stadium for a huge game will tell you that Ohio State's fans mean business.

Carson's comments have been playing all over the radio as well as television here in Columbus Ohio for the past two days. Let's just say, Carson Palmer isn't very popular in Columbus right now. Last night, after the media started to circulate these comments more and more, Palmer released another statement. In this statement Palmer said that he got a little too fired up when talking to a USC crowd and that does respect the Buckeyes. He also said that he understands that Buckeye fans are passionate too. Clearly, he's trying to do some damage control after it has become very clear that he will be on the negative end of that passion from those Ohio fans.

Carson Palmer is a USC guy and he certainly would be expected to cheer for his team, but he made a large mistake when going out of his way to bash the Buckeyes last week. Many of those Buckeye fans are also Bengals fans, so one can rest assured that Palmer will be much more heavily scrutinized this year than he has been in the past. Carson better hope he shows up ready to play this season!